Reconfiguring the MacBook trackpad..

[SparkyNZ]

Hi Everyone. Is there any way at all to use the MacBook trackpad so that I can rest my fingers on the righthand side of the pad and have a bottom left-click behave as a bottom left-click?? Whenever I want to click on something, I have to lift my right hand right off the laptop which drives me mad (the trackpad thinks I am right-clicking which I've set up). I've never had this problem with any of my Windows laptops (which obviously have dedicated left and right clicking buttons).

 

[Comeagain?]

Have you tried just clicking with your right hand/finger? You can click anywhere on the trackpad.

 

[ixodes]

I find the Apple trackpad an exceptionally good input device. Yes, it's different than others, especially those with two buttons, but if you reframe how you think of it and give yourself time to adapt, it's highly likely you'll begin to appreciate just how good it is.

It's no different than anything else that is new and unlike what you've used in the past. If you take a negative approach you'll miss out on one of the best features of a Mac laptop.

 

[SparkyNZ]

I find the Apple trackpad an exceptionally good input device. Yes, it's different than others, especially those with two buttons, but if you reframe how you think of it and give yourself time to adapt, it's highly likely you'll begin to appreciate just how good it is.

It's no different than anything else that is new and unlike what you've used in the past. If you take a negative approach you'll miss out on one of the best features of a Mac laptop.

Sorry I appear so negative.. I'm not really. I am sure the device itself is brilliant - I would just like to configure it better for my use. Getting used to the keyboard and trackpad is hard because I rotate through many computers constantly. If I only had the MacBook and no other laptops to use, I wouldn't have a problem at all adjusting but I really need to find a solution. There has to be a configuration utility out there that will let me relax my fingers on/near the pad without interpreting as "left-click plus finger on the right".

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Have you tried just clicking with your right hand/finger? You can click anywhere on the trackpad.

Huh? What did that do? For some reason it would appear that its working the way I want it too.. I just clicked in the top/top right of the trackpad and its behaving itself.. Hmm. Don't understand

 

[ixodes]

Sorry I appear so negative.. I'm not really. I am sure the device itself is brilliant - I would just like to configure it better for my use. Getting used to the keyboard and trackpad is hard because I rotate through many computers constantly. If I only had the MacBook and no other laptops to use, I wouldn't have a problem at all adjusting but I really need to find a solution. There has to be a configuration utility out there that will let me relax my fingers on/near the pad without interpreting as "left-click plus finger on the right".

I can relate, working in a cross platform environment, I'm constantly switching between my laptops / MacBook Pro / ThinkPad W520, and therefore I deal with the same thing.

What I found when Apple first went to the glass trackpad with additional functionality via multiple gesture support, was as I mentioned earlier, I had to re-frame my approach and adjust. It's challenging to be patient initially , but the end result is very satisfying.

Stick with it, be patient and I'm sure that you will be very happy once things begin to become easier.

 

[minifridge1138]

Sorry I appear so negative.. I'm not really. I am sure the device itself is brilliant - I would just like to configure it better for my use. Getting used to the keyboard and trackpad is hard because I rotate through many computers constantly. If I only had the MacBook and no other laptops to use, I wouldn't have a problem at all adjusting but I really need to find a solution. There has to be a configuration utility out there that will let me relax my fingers on/near the pad without interpreting as "left-click plus finger on the right".

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Huh? What did that do? For some reason it would appear that its working the way I want it too.. I just clicked in the top/top right of the trackpad and its behaving itself.. Hmm. Don't understand

The apple trackpad doesn't care where you 'click', just that you 'clicked'. Right side, left side, top side, bottom side; it doesn't matter.

What usually matters is how many points you clicked on.
If you click with 1 finger (anywhere) then it is a left click.
If you click with 2 fingers (anywhere) then it is a right click.

What was happening before, is that your right hand was touching the track pad, so when you clicked with your left finger the track pad detected 2 points of contact and performed a right click.

 

[SparkyNZ]

What was happening before, is that your right hand was touching the track pad, so when you clicked with your left finger the track pad detected 2 points of contact and performed a right click.

Interesting. Well I can leave my right hand fingers on the trackpad now and click on the bottom left and it behaves as a left click.. If I click on the righthand side of the trackpad, it behaves as a right click. Hehe. I don't know what I've done but its working the way I expect. In my trackpad preferences, "Secondary Click" is set to "Bottom Right-hand Corner".

Edit: Actually.. I know what the problem is now. If I rest my finger on the bottom righthand corner at the same time, this is what results in my rightclick - so I understand what you mean about being able to click anywhere now - its picking up my finger in the bottom right. Hopefully I will be able to adjust my habit knowing the specifics now.

 

[kettlecorn]

Try Better Touch Tools, otherwise known as BTT. I don't know why everyone doesn't get it cause that' the first thing that gets installed on any mac I get. It's free and basically it configures your trackpad in the most versatile and custom way possible, as well as the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, etc.

The list of gestures is incredible, you can do zigzag, 1-5 finger all directional swipes, make it so that certain gestures are only for certain applications, set it to keystroke, etc.

I don't lift my hand off the trackpad when in Chrome. 4 finger up is CMD+L which opens up location to type a website URL so I don't have to drag the mouse cursor to the top URL Bar and click. 4 finger right is CMD+W which is close tab. 4 finger left is CMD+T which is new tab. And so forth.